Defense dans la rue Vol.1 - Savate Street Kicking
Craig Germiner, DVD - 2006
Available From Savate Australia
Review by Pete Kautz, 2007

Old-school Savate practitioner Craig Germiner is back with a new DVD covering the fighting kicks from the classic Defense dans la rue style of French Savate.  If you enjoyed his earlier La Canne DVD series French cane fighting then you will want to get this new DVD on street kicking as well.

The Defense dans la rue method from the turn of the century was designed for street fighting with boots on emphasizing basic low kicks in rapid-fire combination with knees and other attacks as needed.  This rough "dirty fighting" style of kicking is absolutely night-and-day different from the modern Boxe France' "French Kickboxing" style of Savate more commonly known to viewers of European kickboxing and MMA today.

How is this older method different from the modern ring sport?  Well, for starters there are NO high kicks at all and no real flexibility is needed.  As opposed to the chest-high knee chamber position and extreme flexibility required for the flashy modern kicks, pretty much anyone can throw the Defense style kicks and get solid results, even if they are 300 pounds and tight as an iron dog.  If you can walk you can throw these kicks, and if you are athletic then wow - you will have no problem at all.  A soccer player could watch this video and go a long way towards defending themselves!  Move, kick, move, kick, kick - then run.

If you have ever looked at WWII combat manuals and seen the way they throw the low side kick (boot kick) with the characteristic lean away from an attacker then you have glimpsed this older style Savate.  It was this same old-school Savate that impressed Bruce Lee with it's non-telegraphic, whipping kicks.  If you have ever looked at photos of Savate kicking and just not "gotten it" as far as how it's any different from other ways of kicking then do yourself a favor - get this DVD and you will be able to see the differences in how the kicks are thrown that are invisible in the still pictures!  As hard as it is to really appreciate these kicks from still images, as soon as you see them done live it seems a very obvious and natural way to kick.

I think you JKD / FMA / Gun / Modern / Street / Tactical folks out there will really like this as something to add to what you do.  Many folks just don't know how to *effectively* kick someone so don't feel confident using their feet or knees, but these simple techniques can fill that void without taking 10 years to master or requiring you to do a split between two chairs.  Especially if you wear boots anyhow, then you need to learn these kicks!

The DVD covers historical background of the art and then gets right to work teaching you the basic kicks and variations.  Once you have these basics down, Craig introduces different combinations and various combative training drills.  Each section is well explained and logically links to the next forming a solid nucleus of kicking skill.  This is done just like if you were learning from Craig, and the fact that he did the voice-over for the DVD makes it even better.

Craig's clear, soft-spoken narration is often humorously in contrast to the violent action on screen, and some of his Australian phrases (such as "Drive 'im back and fire the pointe kick to 'is wedding tackle") made me laugh aloud the first time I heard them.  Overall, Craig has a great, no-nonsense low-key approach to teaching and it comes across well on the DVD.

Like on his La Cane DVDs there is plenty of "live" training footage and Craig does not shy away from hard work.  You'll get to see him work the kicks with snap, sweat doing rounds, and get beat on by two guys while he kicks hell out of their legs in several different "pressure" drills.  There is absolutely no doubt of the effectiveness of the material from his presentation and I think it will help give the student confidence that it can work for them as well!

Hats off to Craig for another fantastic presentation on Savate.  I look forward to Defense dans la rue Volume 2!

Savate Street Kicking Is Available From Savate Australia